


Spellwork's Got Nothing on Falling like This

by wmblake



Series: Parkner Halloween Week 2019 [3]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Getting Together, Heart-to-Heart, M/M, finding out about powers, parkner halloween week 2019, witch!Harley
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-05 14:28:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21210065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wmblake/pseuds/wmblake
Summary: Harley probably should've known that he couldn't keep his powers a secret from Peter forever. Of course, if he'd known it would've ended like this, he probably would've told him a long time ago.





	Spellwork's Got Nothing on Falling like This

Harley watched as the red sphere in his palm spun out into a golden disk in front of him. He laughed, eyes bright, as the disk thinned into a chain that danced around him. “Fri, you’re gettin’ all this, right?”

“Of course, little boss. Also, might I alert you—”

“Tony’s gonna be here soon, right? I wanna show off how good I’ve gotten with the finesse part.” Harley brought the gold chain back into his hands and closed his eyes. It absorbed into his palms, glowing beneath his skin as it traveled up his arms, to his heart, where it paused, before spreading down his legs, through his feet, and into the ground. It rose from the floor like a dome, shielding Harley in a soft light. He lifted his hands and a dark magenta overtook the gold, solidifying the light into a casing.

“Little boss, there’s—”

The door to the lab slid open. Harley, his back to it, spoke half over his shoulder, “Hey, old man, check it out! I’ve been workin’ on my dexterity and—” He dropped his hands and the magenta fell. The gold spun into circles around him. “I’m still workin’ on the actual practicality of it, y’know, but my shields don’t take too long to—”

Something clattered behind him.

“Tony?” Harley turned with a furrowed brow.

Peter stood in the doorway, mouth open. Harley flushed. The golden circles around him shattered—like halos, he thought distantly—and dropped to the ground, melting into it.

“Um,” Harley started. “I can, uh … explain?” The two stared at each other. “Okay, so I can’t exactly explain,” he admitted with a small wince. “Don’t tell anybody? We’ve been—we’re keepin’ it under wraps, y’know, until I’m better, until I can—do things, y’know, help people, go out on—patrols. Like. Uh. Like you do.”

Peter blinked. “Were … were you always able to do that?”

“Uh … yeah? Kind of. I mean, not that exact trick, it’s taken a while to get that good of control over spell-less magic, I’m much better at designin’ spellwork and then workin’ off that, but I need to have some spontaneous stuff I can do on the fly if I need to—um. But. Short answer. To the question that you probably meant ‘stead of askin’ ‘bout that particular—yeah. Yes. It’s, um. I’ll just. Stop ramblin’ now.” Harley fidgeted. Peter continued to stare at him like he’d grown a second, third, and fourth head. “… is Tony behind you?”

“Um. No. I mean. I think he’s coming, just not behind me. I mean, behind me in that he’s going to be here after I am, as in I’m already here, but you can—tell that,” Peter babbled. Harley smiled, at least a little, to see Peter just as nervous as he was. “Were you expecting him?”

“Yeah, kind of, I—wanted to show him how I was doin’.”

“He knows you can do magic?”

“He was the first one to find out, ‘sides for my sister.” Harley shrugged. “He’s been teachin’ me what he can. Tryin’ to outsource a bit, get some other tutors, too—like Dr. Strange, but, uh—yeah. Tony knows.”

“Teaching—does _Tony_ know magic too?”

“You say that like it’s a surprise.” Harley rolled his eyes. “His arc reactor blocked the Mind Stone’s powers. How could it do that without magic, or at least somethin’ commensurable?”

“I think I need to sit down.”

Harley snorted and gestured to one of the couches. “Would you like to have a seat?” he teased. Peter scrunched his nose up at him, but he plopped down on to the couch gracelessly regardless. Harley rolled his eyes, a warm fondness bubbling in his chest.

A gentle pink light, like a thin rope, wrapped itself around his arms. Peter’s eyes widened. “What are you—”

“What?” Harley looked down. “Oh. Right.” He bit his tongue. _Idiot._ He waved the light back into his hands and dispersed it. He gave Peter a small smile. “Again. I’m better at workin’ with spells rather than this kind of stuff. Like the difference ‘tween a wizard and a druid in D&D. My powers are definitely not wisdom-based,” he joked.

Peter laughed, abrupt, like it surprised him. “Well, with a mentor like Mr. Stark, I can _hardly_ imagine why that would be the case. Not like he’s known for his awful lack of wisdom at any point in time.”

“No, of course not, how could you even suggest such a thing?”

They shared a grin.

Silence fell between them.

“… so you’ve always been able to do this?” Peter asked again.

“Yeah.”

“… why didn’t you tell me? I mean, you—you weren’t obligated to, obviously, but—I told you about being Spiderman. You could’ve—or did I—was there something that—did you feel like you couldn’t tell me?”

Harley frowned. “No. Not—not anythin’ that was somethin’ you did or said. I just. Have problems with tellin’ people, I guess. I mean, I could be better, and I _need_ to be better before I can really help anybody, and beyond that … I dunno. I wasn’t plannin’ on never tellin’ you, I just … didn’t know how to bring it up.” He cracked a smile. “How could I have told you? ‘Hey, Peter, wanna see a magic trick? And I mean a real one, not some parlor trick I learned off YouTube?’ Can you imagine how that would’ve gone?”

Peter chuckled weakly. “Yeah, I guess you’ve got a good point.”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you,” Harley reassured. “I trust you. I—I was hopin’ we’d be able to patrol together at some point, actually. I just—never thought it was the right time.”

“You want to patrol with me?”

“Uh, yeah. Between you and Tony—you’re the ones that make me wanna be a hero in the first place, so …”

Peter flushed. Harley watched it creep down his neck. _Stop that,_ he scolded himself. “I didn’t … I didn’t know that,” Peter said. Harley smiled.

“Well, I’ve got some sort of reputation to uphold.” Harley shrugged. “But, yeah. I’ve always wanted to be like Tony, and you—you’re just. You make it look so easy, bein’ good and kind and—heroic. I wanna be like that.”

“It’s not, you know,” Peter replied, voice small. “Easy. It’s—God, it’s so _hard_ sometimes. Sometimes I just get so—angry or tired or—like just after—” His voice cracked. “After my Uncle Ben died. I wanted—I wanted to do _something._ And the anger felt like—like it knew what I should do. But—” He shook his head. “That’s not the kind of person I want to be.”

Harley nodded. “Maybe we can help each other be the kinds of people we wanna be, then. If we’re sharin’.”

“Yeah.” Peter grinned. “Any other big secrets you’re keeping from me? Might as well get it out in the open.”

“Yeah, right. It’s your turn to reveal somethin’, Parker. You just found out one of my big secrets.”

“Oh, so there _are_ more?”

“I don’t kiss and tell.” _Poor choice of words._ Harley shook his head. “Anyway, even if there are more, it’s your turn to share one.”

“Hmm, fine.” Peter thought a moment. “How serious are we being?”

“As serious as you wanna be.”

“Okay. I don’t really think I’m the person you think I am.” Peter stared at the ground. “I mean, I want to be. I try to be. Or I try to seem like I am, at least. But—it’s so much work. Being nice. Being kind. Being the hero when sometimes—it’s not only sometimes, the anger, you know? It’s like—I feel like it could eat me up from the inside sometimes. The world is just—so unfair and cruel and harsh, like, how am I supposed to—be better than that?” He slouched. “Mr. Stark always says he wants me to be better than he is. I don’t know how to tell him that I don’t think I can be.”

Harley paused, and then sat on the couch next to Peter. “I meant what I said,” he started, “about us helpin’ each other be who we wanna be.” He bit his lip. “Sometimes, I think it’d be easier to be angry. To wanna … hurt others, ‘stead of bein’ the one bein’ hurt.” He swallowed. “I hate bein’ the vulnerable one, y’know? Like it’s … some kind of weakness.”

“It takes a lot of bravery to be vulnerable.”

Harley snorted. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

“I’m serious. I think being—kind, being gentle, being soft, even—in a world like this one, where—where people leave or die or get shot for no reason—it’s really brave. Even if you have to keep it hidden behind walls, it’s still there. You’ve tried to make yourself hard, thinking that’d make you strong, but it’s—it’s what’s behind the walls that makes you strong.”

“If that’s the case, then you tryin’ to be soft even in a world like this is pretty brave of you, too. Even if you think you haven’t quite made it yet.”

Peter smiled. “Thanks. I think it’s your turn to share again.”

“It definitely is not. You just side-tracked us with your sagely feeling stuff, you didn’t actually share anythin’ that time.”

“Fine, fine.” Peter thought a moment, chewing his lip. “… what if I can’t think of anything?”

Harley narrowed his eyes. “Can you really think of _nothin’_ or are you just tryin’ to get outta sayin’ whatever’s on your mind?” Peter blushed. “There’s your answer.”

He pouted. “Oh, c’mon, you know a bunch of things about me.”

“Are you sayin’ you don’t know a bunch of things about me?”

“I just found out you have magic powers. How am I supposed to know what I know now?” Peter smiled. Harley rolled his eyes.

“It’s not like I’m a totally different person. Just like you aren’t totally different for havin’ weird spider powers, ‘cause that’s just another part of bein’ you.” Peter stuck his tongue out at Harley, who just laughed. “Seriously. I don’t think it—I don’t think it should change a whole lot.”

Peter hummed. “… fine. Okay, okay. Let me think …”

“You already had somethin’ to say. It was written all over your face.”

“What if I don’t want to say that though?”

“What could be the worst thing that happens?”

“You—I—no.” Peter shook his head. “You aren’t going to goad me into this.”

“C’mon, Petey, you already know what to say.”

“You can’t make me.”

“No, but I can try annoyin’ you into sayin’ it anyway.” Harley grinned.

“Dear Lord, save me now.”

“You could save yourself a lot of trouble by just tellin’ me.”

Peter sighed. “You’re not going to drop this, huh?”

“Nope.”

“Fine. But you have to promise this doesn’t change anything between us if—well. Just that it doesn’t.”

Harley frowned. “Uh. If you’re ‘bout to reveal that you’re like, secretly a HYDRA agent or somethin’, sorry to tell you, but it’s gonna change stuff. Like. I’ll punch you in the face and arrest you. That kind of it’s gonna change stuff.”

Peter smiled. “Well, it’s not that.”

“Okay, then yeah, I can probably promise it won’t change anythin’. That’s probably as good as you’re gonna get without more details.”

“Yeah, that’s … that’s fair.” Peter closed his eyes. Took a deep breath. “Okay, so … um.” He opened his eyes. “That felt really stupid, actually. I thought not seeing you would make it easier, but instead I just felt like a moron.”

Harley rolled his eyes. “Is that any different from usual, darlin’?” he teased.

“Not really … Anyway. I. Uh. Okay. Um.” Peter gnawed on his lip again. Harley’s eyes flicked down to his mouth. “I was thinking of waiting until we were out on patrol, but then probably wouldn’t actually do it, or wouldn’t say the whole question, because asking someone to eat tacos on a rooftop is a lot easier than asking someone out but—” He paused his rambling to take a breath. Harley blinked. “Uh. Harley. Would you wanna—um. Go out? With me? Sometime? Like not just out as in to get for or something, but like out-out as in like a—”

“Yes,” Harley cut him off with a grin. “Yes. Out-out. As in a date. Yes.”

Peter blinked. “Oh. Oh wow. I didn’t—I didn’t think you’d actually say yes. Oh. I, uh. Can I—could we—”

“Can I kiss you?” Harley asked, beaming. Peter beamed back.

“Yes. Please.”

They leaned forward, hands going to cup cheeks and tangle through hair. Their lips met. Harley closed his eyes.

It felt like magic.


End file.
